The Japanese donburi or rice bowl truly is a one bowl wonder. The Japanese make cooking for one a simple affair. It is partly the mindset of simplicity and partly a frugal approach to eating that is not only healthy and economical but practical when your fridge contents don’t look that promising. Probably one of…

I enjoy eating quail; those little packages of tender, dark meat that are not quite chicken and not quite a game bird, somewhere in between, much like the middle child of the poultry family. I often want to serve them to dinner guests, split, marinated in olive oil, lemon and garlic and quickly barbecued but…

Small personalised gifts are delightful, both at the receiving and giving end. In giving you have the added pleasure of creating the gift, as I recently experienced with making my own chocolate bars. Chocolate bars are an easy inroad into chocolate making, as they do not require the multiple and fiddly steps of creating pralines…

If you want to give your grilled meat or fish a flavour and textural contrast, serve it with a creamy skordalia. With cauliflowers in season now you can make a cauliflower skordalia or one with a mix of potato and cauliflower. Skordalia hails from Greece and at its most basic is the thick puree of…

Recently I made an Indian feast of basmati rice, rogan josh, vegetable curry, onion sambal and raita. While refreshing my spice stocks at the local Indian grocery store I also bought some papadums to complete the spread. On checking how best to deep fry them I discovered that you don’t have to; you can cook…